I think we all agree that in terms of tech hubs, Switzerland has this cozy place in our minds as a go-to place, but have you ever wondered why is that? What makes it so special? When we think of Switzerland and tech what comes to our mind is blockchain, Crypto valley, startups – concepts which are simply innovative and at the same time sexy. They draw attention, tempt investors and as a result of these and numerous other reasons - make money.

Together with my guest Sheraz Ahmed we will try to understand what the secret behind Switzerland’s status is and perhaps we will be able to find out the recipe for success – many regions have already attempted to reach a similar status, but none of them has reached the goal yet.

The rapid acceleration of fintech industry in the past years, especially caused by the pandemics, has influenced lifes of many people worldwide – also when it comes to the financial aspects. But there are still areas where the levels of financial inclusion and financial literacy are low.

There’re several reasons why it is important to improve these levels since on the one hand, financial literacy and financial inclusion touch on the very basic, core needs of individuals, and on the other hand - it has a huge impact in the large scale, on economies of the countries and their growth.

Research by EY presented that financial inclusion could improve GDP by up to 14% in more rural, developing economies like India and 30% in frontier markets like Kenya. Such increase would make a huge difference in terms of the economic growth.

My guest is Nina Mohanty who is passionate about FinTech and how it can better financial inclusion and financial literacy.

One of the ways for a business to thrive and develop is to be backed by Private Equity. The areas which Private Equity targets are quite wide but very often it invests in the IT-related industries or directly into technologies developed by the companies from various sectors. Considering how well IT stands throughout the pandemics and how COVID accelerated the need for the digital transformation it seems that such a trend will only continue to gain grounds.
However, every owner should bear in mind that an investor usually has lots to say in terms of the technologies they invest in and quite often may impose certain solutions on the company. It is therefore essential to consider how the relation PE – owner could look like, on the one hand, from the point of view of an investor, and on the other hand, of an owner. It is crucial to understand that to make it all work and bring tangible benefits.
Today we will discuss with James Prebble how Private Equity approaches IT in their investments.

Medicine 20 years ago and medicine today is not the same science in terms of technological acceleration it has faced throughout the years. It seems that 2020 made it even more advanced and technology-oriented considering the ongoing pandemics and the need to limit in-person appointment but maintain the same level, or at least close level, of access for the patients.
In 2019, less than 10% of consumers had a telehealth visit within the past year. In 2020 such visits became a must-have and one month into the lockdown, about 80% of our visits were happening virtually. This shows the huge acceleration we had to face, both in the terms of technological background as well as patient-doctor interactions.

Together with my guest, Sebastian Boëthius, we will touch upon exactly those two aspects of telemedicine: the technology side and the human part. Both approaches are essential for telemedicine to bring the necessary effects and provide healthcare to those in need, especially now.

Most enterprises have already started their Journey to the Cloud, more or less. The industry faces a revolution in a way key players provide services and move from traditional IT to modern, faster and scalable tools.

But the bigger the organisation is, the harder the journey. Challenges of knowledge transfer, overcoming siloes, communication, getting rid of legacy, managing risk and staying on top of a huge cloud migration - there's plenty of things to watch out for. Luckily our guest today knows all the ropes of the journey to the cloud on an enterprise scale, and I won't hesitate to ask him how to approach this challenge.

Today’s the most volatile and uncertain time for businesses worldwide – it's a fact you can’t deny. Moreover, if you expect things will go quiet and peaceful again, you’re most likely wrong.

VUCA is the new normal and is here to stay. Bearing that in mind, it’s good to understand how to stay on top of change and manage the disruption. The pandemics has only accelerated the need for change management, forcing companies to go through digital transformation in their organizations to stay on top of the situation and not lose their market positions.  

With my guest Graham, we discussed what factors are crucial in the change management process, how IT and operations should be aligned thereto and hopefully, at the end of our conversation, we arrived to some answers on how to avoid common mistakes related to change.

In a competitive market, customers expect access 24x7 to the eCommers site from any device, and if they can’t buy what they want when they want, they will simply go elsewhere.

John Lewis is one of the UKs leading eCommerce platforms, with a demand profile which is massively influenced by promotional activity such as Black Friday. To illustrate that - February is a low point in Retail as customers finances are recovering from Christmas, customer orders might be as low as 200/hr yet peak at 20,000/hr during Black Friday, 100 times higher.

Together with Craig we discussed what challenges he must face operating such a site and what approach he took.

From cash and checks to e-wallets: real-time, global, secure digital payments - the landscape of the payments industry has changed drastically in the recent years. Nonetheless, the disruption is still only ahead of us and it's worth understanding what payment trends will shape the way the market goes. New technology, customer behaviour, ever-growing competition force the industry to revisit its fundamentals.

In 2020 doing business became very difficult and unpredictable all around the globe. The pandemic was unexpected and none of us was truly prepared for it.  

It’s been almost a year now that we live in a world, we do not dare to call normal yet, however, it is a world which we are involuntarily getting used to – businesswise too. It’s impossible to predict when COVID-19 will cease to be threat to business, but what we can do is look at 2020, reflect upon it and draw conclusions for the future.  
How organisations can adapt to the new normal, how to stay on top of the situation and make use of the situation to gain momentum? We’ll ask our guest, Anton Lewis, a serial entrepreneur and a founder of a digital agency.

No doubt we are witnesses to a huge industry disruption which is caused by the digital transformation. It affects not only the IT world, but a lot of innovative industries, changing the world we know as we speak. But how to predict what impact will it have and how to embed it in the economics?

Our guest will tell us more about the economic perspective of the disruption and how it is reflected in the Kondratieff Wave theory. It is especially interesting to investors and governments since it helps them to understand how periods of uncertainty or crisis relate to long-term economic and social trends. According to the theory, since XVIII c. we have experienced 5 Kondratieff cycles and it seems that COVID 19 is driving us towards the 6th Kondratieff very quickly.